Movie Reviews

Another cold winter in Japan

Matt | NJ | 07/25/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This night of Pride Fighting begins with Pride veteran Guy Mezger going up against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, twin brother of heavyweight champion Rodrigo. These two skilled fighers all but cancel each other out in the first round. There's not all that much happening here, but the fight gets a bit more exciting in the 2nd round. The fight is not too entertaining and it goes to a decision.

Rodrigo Gracie then takes on Yuki Sasaki. After getting through a very uninteresting first round, we are treated to the same thing in rounds two and three. This one goes to a decision.

Alistair Overeem v. Volk Ataev- Ataev lands one of the most beautiful spinning heel kicks I've ever seen in MMA competition. Upon replay, you see that it doesn't land as flushly as everyone first thinks, but it was enough to drop Overeem to the mat, at least temporarily. This fight ends quickly and unexpectedly, with two highly charged combatants. There is good action in this fight.

Murilo Ninja Rua v. Kevin Randleman-Pride rising star Murilo Ninja takes on the ever-irritating Kevin Randleman. I was, however, excited for a very good fight. Randleman quickly takes Rua down and attempts to make it another fight in his usual unamusing style of a takedown followed by Randleman lying on top of his opponent until the end of the round... This fight is a good back and forth battle, as Rua is too good to be held down by Randleman. This one is stopped in the 3rd due to a bad cut. Another good fight.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira v. Dan Henderson-Everyone expected Nogueira to walk through Henderson in this bout. Henderson had actually beaten Nogueira years back, but Nogueira is a different fighter by this point. Everyone was surprised by the way this fight actually played out. Henderson escapes numerous submission attempts by one of the best submission artists in the game. This fight is very exciting and we see technical skill and precision against pure heart... Great fight.

This is a decent event. It starts out very slowly, with little action and it picks up as it progresses. The main event was certainly the highlight of this event."